Curing Nightmares
by Lawler3929
Summary: Old memories are forced back to the present when Hercules experiences one of the many nightmares he's been having. The one and only Meg comes into play, trying to heal Hercules' wounds....Yeah summary sucks, but R R!


The peace of the calm, quiet night was suddenly disturbed when Hercules shot upright, gasping for air.

It took him a while to recognize his surroundings, everything was extremely dark.

"Hercules?" came a subtle voice from the darkness. There was a flick, and suddenly the room was filled with light from the lamp.

"Herc...Are you alright?" Meg said slowly, trying to get the sleep out of her eyes. If it were about anything but her husband, she would have been angry being awoken from a peaceful sleep.

Unknowingly, Hercules' hands were shaking as the sweat dropped down from his forehead. He calmed down a bit when double checking his surroundings.

"Uhh, yeah, it was only a nightmare. It's nothing to worry about, let's just go back to sleep." No, he wasn't telling the truth, but he didn't want Meg to worry so he put on the best reassuring smile he could.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Meg asked, knowing that neither of them would get any sleep if Hercules was tossing and turning all night.

"No," Hercules lied. He figured Meg needed her sleep, so he didn't want to trouble her with his own problems. "It was only a dream."

Meg leaned back against her pillow and thought carefully about what to say.

"You know, I'm usually the one with the nightmares, not you," she said. Well it was true, Meg did have far more nightmares than he did...Come to think of it, he never used to have nightmares before, so why now?

Meg brought her eyes to his and saw the extreme amount of discomfort in them.

"Well actually, this wouldn't be the first time. They've been happening a lot over these past few weeks. I just didn't want to worry you," Hercules said, not wanting to look her back in the eyes.

"Really?" Meg asked. "What is it you are dreaming of that's causing this?"

Before Hercules spoke he turned his head and gazed at Meg lovingly, taking in every single detail.

"I'm afraid of losing you."

"What?" Meg said shocked, suddenly wide awake.

_'He's afraid of losing me? What? Does he think I'll just run off with some other man?'_

"Herc, I'm not going anywhere, I'm sure you know that," Meg said with all of the reassurance in her voice.

Meg reached out and took Hercules' hand in hers, for a bit of reinforcement.

"Yeah," Hercules gulped. "I know. But deep down, I'm scared of someone taking you away from me...I-I don't think I could go through that again."

Meg was confused; eyebrow raised. "A-Again? What do you mean again?" asked Meg.

"Well, that's kinda what I've been dreaming about," Hercules began. "The first time I lost you." He stopped for a moment; he didn't want to continue, knowing that Meg did not want to hear it.

"I dream of when you sacrificed your life to save me."

Meg's eyes grew wide and she looked at Hercules in shock. She hadn't a clue that that day had had as big of an impact as it did.

Of course she figured it had affected him, it affected her too. But she hadn't known that it would have bothered him to this very day.

"It was the worst thing that I could ever have experienced," Hercules continued, letting his mind drift back to the painful memories. "It was that feeling of utter helplessness, of having someone you love taken away from you...And there was nothing you could do about it."

If that hadn't broken her heart, nothing else would. She was so glad to have someone like Hercules who cared for her that much.

"And I...I didn't even make it in time to save you. By the time I made it back...you were already gone," Hercules said, with a scared tone.

"No," Meg started. "Stop, I don't want you to bring back those bad memories."

Hercules sighed and rubbed his head with his hands. It was but a mere few seconds when he felt an arm drape over his shoulder.

Meg began to speak, softly she said, "I didn't exactly know what I was thinking when I did that. When I saw the pillar coming down, I guess I just acted on instinct. Maybe it was out of bravery...or out of love.

And in the end, you ended up saving me like you always have. You've always been there for me, and I want you to know that I will always be there for you."

Meg took a deep breath and continued with her "speech".

"Just before I was about to...die...I couldn't help but think about you, and how you saved me," Meg said.

Hercules gave her an honest and confused look. "But...But I didn't, not then," he stuttered.

Meg nodded her head and replied, "Yes, you did. You saved me from a life without...without love. If it weren't for you, I never would have experienced love again, I would still be a loner just wandering. Herc, you taught me a very valuable lesson about compassion a-and kindness. That I could learn to trust people again."

Afterwards, silence filled the room, but not the awkward/uncomfortable kind. Both were very deep in thought, bringing up old memories that they had spent weeks trying to suppress.

"And then I told you that I loved you," Meg said after a few long seconds of silence. "I figured that if those were my last few minutes on Earth, I might as well have told you other than wonder what could have happened. But I'm glad I did," she ended with a teary eyed smile.

Hercules couldn't help but smile the slightest bit, he was so incredibly glad that everything had worked out.

"You know, I made a deal with Hades to take me in your place...When you were down in the Underworld," Hercules admitted.

"Really?" she asked. She knew that he had rescued her, but she didn't know of the details. If it weren't him becoming a God, they both would have been floating down in the Underworld forever.

"Yeah, it was pretty terrifying, but I knew that it had to be done," Hercules said with a slight chuckle. He was feeling loads better.

Meg leaned closer to Hercules and said softly, "Nothing my Wonder Boy couldn't handle." Then ended with a passionate kiss, full of love and thanks.

Their lips parted, gasping for air. Hercules gave a smile that could light up the entire country of Greece.

"Alright now," Meg said through a yawn as they both lay down. "Time for sleep."

Reaching over and turning the lamp off, Hercules rapped his arms in a warm embrace around Meg.

As Herc lay in the dark, his arms wrapped around the woman he would die a million times for, he listened to the subtle sound of the wind blowing outside.

The time to put the horrible nightmares at bay was now. Meg and Hercules loved each other very much, and neither were going anywhere.


End file.
